Hi everyone. I'm new here. I just bought a Pioneer DV333 DVD player and I just picked up some cheap karaoke VCDs. These VCD's play fine but I can't seem to mute the voice track. I thought it was a matter of turning off either the right or left channel but this is not the case. Can somebody please explain to me how these karaoke VCD's work? Do I have to get an actual karaoke player? Your comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-- Mr Bigglesworth (bigglesworth_mr_@hotmail.com), January 13, 2001

Answers

I've got the Pioneer 333 too and I'd like to know too. Does anyone know if it will be able to play karaoke DVD's properly, i.e. can you cut the voice out of the sound? What exactly does a DVD/VCD player with karaoke functions do that a regular DVD/VCD player cannot? I thought that with a non-karaoke player you would be able to somehow cut out the voice track and that you would just have to have a mike mixer to be able to sing along. Am I wrong? Please advise. Thank you.

-- Jimbo Jones (jimbo_jones@funcow.com), January 13, 2001.

Most DVD set-tops can play karaoke VCDs okay; the first thing one has to find out is how and where to select the audio such that only left (or whichever the music track is on) is playing. I have NOT found out yet a DVD set-top that didn't have this feature for two-channel sources; this is akin to a hi-fi stereo VCR where one can select L, R, stereo (all hi-fi) or the mono normal track. IT WILL BE there; a close look at the instruction manual will be all that's needed. When so chosen the player simply routes the content of the L channel both to L and R outputs so, viola!, your stereo (where the DVD is connected to) will still have its L and R amps and speakers sounding. An actual karaoke player only adds mic preamps and inputs and automatic switching plus some reverb to the mono music track (which is what happens after all when selecting the music track). Other than all this and you don't care about a mic (or have an external mic mixer) a conventional DVD set-top is okay.

-- Mehmet Tekdemir (turk690@yahoo.com), January 13, 2001.

There are two types of DVD players on the market. One type is made for Western Countries and is dedicated to playing Holywood quality DVD movies only, and come with features that make full use of DVD advanced capabilities. The second type is make for Asian countries where VCD and Karaoke is the norm. These machines would come with at least two mike inputs, pitch and echo controls and left & right audio channels selections, and PBC for menu style VCDs. The Chinese has work this to a fine art and thier DVD players now are designed to also read CD-R, CD-RW, SVD, DVCD, CDDA, MP3 and real rotten & non compliant VCD discs. On top of these, these players also come with all the bells and whistles to play DVD movies and DVD Karaoke discs.

Hence, many DVD players not catering for Karaoke, have no feature to select left or right channel. One of my friend has this problem. The only way to select one channel is using your amplifier to select mono and one of the channel.

-- tomo (tomong@one.net.au), January 13, 2001.

Thanks for the input. So what you are saying is that if I am able to select the proper channel, i.e. either the right or the left then my DVD/VCD player will be just the same as a karaoke player as long as I also have some kind of a mike mixer? If so, this would mean that the karaoke disk would be playing in mono rather than stereo, right? Does this mean that a karaoke machine would also play in mono or do they have some other kind of feature which enables it to mute out the voice only while maintaining the separate left/right stereo channels? Thanks again.

-- Mr Bigglesworth (bigglesworth_mr_@hotmail.com), January 14, 2001.

On my Pioneer C302D and DV525, pressing the audio button on the remote to switch between audio 1 and 2. Audio 1 has music + voice, while audio 2 is music only. If the new Pioneer models 333 has the same audio function on the remote, then give it a whirl. NOTE: both of my Pioneer DVD players are NOT Karaoke DVD model. The different between Karaoke Model and none Karaoke Model is two inputs for microphones so that you can sing-a-long with the disc....

-- lnguyen (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), January 14, 2001.

Mr Bigglesworth

In answer to your last posting, it is 'yes', 'yes' and 'not really' to the third question.

If it is too late now to change your DVD player for a Karaoke DVD player, then you will have to spend money to buy a Karaoke mixer to go with your present player. To truly appreciate Karaoke singing, your mixer must have at least 2 mike inputs, pitch & echo controls, quality mikes and your sound system must have powerful hi-fi amplifiers and speakers just like those used in Karaoke lounges.

VCD stereo carrys "music only" in one channel and "music & singer's voice" in second channel. There is no way to mute the singer's voice in the second channel. Singing with your mike to "music only" will all be done in mono, but should come out from both front speakers. If your amplifier cannot select individual channel, you may have to physically disconnect the "music & singer's voice" audio channel connection.

-- tomo (tomong@one.net.au), January 14, 2001.

You have all been very helpful. Thank you all.

-- Mr Bigglesworth (bigglesworth_mr_@hotmail.com), January 14, 2001.

As everybody know, karaoke Vcd has two audio tracks, Left channel and right channel, the left channel is just music and the right channel is the song, i would like to know how do you burn Vcd with this two channel separately ?

-- Midget (angeldot83@hotmail.com), September 10, 2003.